Institutes

Elements of jurisprudence; text-books containing the principles of law made the foundation of legal studies. The word was first used by the civilians to designate those books prepared for the student and supposed to embrace the fundamental legal principles arranged in an orderly manner. Two books of Institutes were known to the civil lawyers of antiquity,

— Galus and Justinian. I. Coke’s Institutes. Four volumes of commentaries upon various parts of the English law. Sir Edward Coke wrote four volumes of Institutes, as he was pleased to call them, though they have little of the institutional method to warrant such a title. The first volume is a very extensive commentary upon an excellent little treatise of tenures, compiled by Judge Littleton in the reign of Edw. IV. This comment is a rich mine of valuable common-law learning, collected and heaped together from the ancient reports and year-books, but greatly defective in method. The second volume is a comment on many old acts of parliament, without any systematic order; the third, a more methodical treatise on the pleas of the crown; and the fourth, an account of the several species of courts. These Institutes are usually cited thus: the firsf volume as Co. Lift., or 1 Inst; the second, third, and fourth as, 2, 3, or 4 Inst., without any author’s name. 1 Bla. Com. 72. II. Gaius’s Institutes. A tractate upon the Roman law, ascribed to Caius or Gaius. Of the personal history of this jurist nothing is known. Even the spelling of his name is matter of controversy, and he is known by no other title than Gaius, or Gaius. He is believed to have lived in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The history of Gaius’s Institutes is remarkable. In 1816, Niebuhr was sent to Rome by the king of Prussia- On his way thither, he spent two days in the cathedral library of Verona, and at this time discovered these Institutes, which had been lost to the jurists of the middle ages. In 1817, the Royal Academy of Berlin charged Goeschen, Bekker, and Hollweg with the pleted edition, as ' far as the manuscript could be deciphered, to his fellow-jurists. It created an unusual sensation, and became a fraltful source of comment It formed a new era in the study of Roman law. It gave the modem jurist the signal advantage of studying the source of the Institutes of Justinian. It is believed by the best modem scholars that Gaius was the first original tractate of the kind, not being compiled from former publications. The language of Gaius is clear, terse, and technical, — evidently written by a master of law and a master of the Latin tongue. The Institutes were unquestionably practical. There is no attempt at criticism or philosophical discussion: the disciple of Sabinus Is content to teach law as he finds it. Its arrangement is solid and logical, and Justinian follows it with an almost servile Imitation. The best editions of Gaius are Goeschen’s 2d ed., Berlin, 1824, In which the text was again collated by Bluhnie, and the 3d ed. of Goeschen, Berlin, 1842, edited by Lachman from a critical revision by Goeschen which had been interrupted by his death. Gneist’s edition (1857) is a recension of all the German editions prior to that date. In France, Gaius attracted equal attention, and we have three editions and translations: Boulet, Paris, 1827; Demangeat, 18GG; and Pellat, 1870. In 1859, Francesco Lisl, a learned Italian scholar, published, at Bologna, a new edition of the first book of Gaius, with an Italian translation en regard. The edition Is accompanied and enriched by many valuable notes, printed in both Latin and Italian. See also Abdy & Walker; S. F. Harris; Mulrhead; T. L. Mears, Gaius, Poste’s translation, 1890.

A name sometimes given to text-books containing the elementary principles of jurisprudence, arranged in an orderly and systematic manner. For example, the Institutes of Justinian, of Gaius, of Lord Coke.

— Institutes of Gains. An elementary work of the Roman jurist Gaius ; important as having formed the foundation of the Institutes of Justinian, (q. v.) These Institutes were discovered by Niebuhr in 1816, in a codex rescriptus of the library of the cathedral chapter at Verona, and were first published at Berlin in 1820. Two editions have since appeared. Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 54.

— Institutes of Justinian. One of the four component parts or principal divisions of the Corpus Juris Civilis, being an elementary treatise on the Roman law, in four books. This work was compiled from earlier sources, (resting principally on the Institutes of Gaius,) by a commission composed of Tribanian and two others, by command and under direction of the emperor Justinian, and was first published November 21, A. D. 533

— Institutes of Lord Coke. The name of four volumes by Lord Coke, published A. D. 1628. The first is an extensive comment upon a treatise on tenures, compiled by Littleton, a judge of the common pleas, temp. Edward IV. This comment is a rich mine of valuable common-law learning, collected and heaped together from the anoient reports and Year Books, but greatly defective in method. It is usually cited by the name of "Co. Litt.," or as "1 Inst." The second volume la a comment upon old acts of parliament, without systematic outer; the third a more methodical treatise on the pleas of the crown; and the fourth an account of the several species of courts. These are cited as 2, 3, or 4 "Inst.," without any author's name. Wharton.

A name sometimes glyen to text-books containing the elementary principles of jurisprudence, arranged in an orderly and systeinalic manner. For example, the Institutes of Justinian, of Gaius, of Lord Coke.

The principles or first elements of jurisprudence. Many books have borne the title of Institutes. Among the most celebrated in the common law, are the Institutes of Lord Coke, which, however, on account of the want of} arrangement and the diffusion with which his books are* written, bear but little the character of Institutes; in the civil law those most generally known are those of Caius, Justinian, and Theophilus. 7 The Institutes of Caius are an abridgment of the Roman law, composed by the celebrated Jawyer Caius or Gaius, who lived during the reign of Marcus ‘Aurelius. The Institutes of Justinian are an abridgment of the Code and of the Digest, composed by order of that emperor: his intention in this composition was to give a summary knowledge of the law to those persons not versed in it, and. particularly to merchants.. The lawyers employed to make this book were Tribonian, Theophilus and Dorotheus. The work was first published in the year 533, and received the sanction of statute law by order of the emperor. The Institutes of Justinian are divided in four books: each book is divided into titles, and each title into parts. The first part is called principium, because it is the commencement of the title; thos which follow are numbered and called paragraphs. The work treats of the rights of persons, of things, and of actions. The first book treats o! persons; the second, third, and the first five titles of the fourth book, of things; and the remainder of the fourth book, of actions. This work has been much admired on account of its order and scientific arrange: ment, which presents at a single glance the whole jurisprudence o the Romans. This work is too lit tle known and sstudied. Judge Cooper has published an edition with valuable notes. The Institutes of Theophilus are a paraphrase of those of Justia, composed in Greek by a lawyer of that name, by order of the emperr Phocas. Vide 1 Kent, Com. 538; Profession d’Avocat, tom. 1], & 536, page 95; Introd. a "Etude du Droit Romain, p. 124; Dict. te Jurisp. h. t.; Merl. Répert. bt; Encyclopédie de d’Alembert, b. t.